Bees

Did you know that there are lots of small so-called native bees in this country? These are ones that have lived in North America for hundreds of years.

Some people call these bees "super pollinators." That's because they can often pollinate specific crops much more easily than honey bees (non-native bees that were brought here from Europe centuries ago).

For instance, in a small apple orchard, 250 females of a kind of native bee called the blue orchard bee can do the work of 35,000 honey bees.

As you may know, honey bees in this country are dying off.

Tiny bugs called mites are killing them.

So farmers who have relied on honey bees to pollinate their crops are turning more and more to native bees.

The good news is: native bees seem pretty tough and aren't being harmed by the tiny bugs that are killing off the honey bees.

Now native bees are helping farmers in this country earn lots of money each year—in fact, billions of dollars worth from sales of bee-pollinated crops.